Wash officer's daughter shot in leg with his gun

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) ' The 10-year-old daughter of a decorated Spokane police officer was in stable condition Tuesday after being shot in the leg with her father's duty weapon, Spokane police said as they announced that sheriff's detectives would investigate the accidental shooting.

Officer Barry O'Connell, an 18-year police department veteran, has been placed on paid leave during the investigation, The Spokesman-Review reported. The little girl wounded Sunday was not immediately identified by name.

Details of the shooting were not immediately available.

It's the fourth reported child shooting in seven weeks in Washington state and the second involving a law enforcement officer's child.

On March 10, the 7-year-old daughter of a Marysville police officer was killed when her brother found a gun in the family car. A Snohomish County sheriff's probe into that shooting, involving Officer Derek Carlile's daughter Jenna, is "still an open investigation," sheriff's Lt. Brent Speyer said Tuesday. Jenna Carlile was shot with a gun belonging to the officer, rather than his duty weapon, authorities have said.

Spokane police announced the O'Connell shooting and investigation Tuesday.

Prosecutors have said the mother of 3-year-old Julio Segura-McIntosh left him unrestrained March 14 in a car in Tacoma after she placed a pistol under the driver's seat. The boy fatally shot himself in the head when the woman went to get food.

The mother, Jahnisha McIntosh, 23, and her boyfriend, Eric Vita, 22, have both pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter charges.

On Feb. 22, an 8-year-old girl was critically wounded by a gun that went off in a classmate's backpack in a Bremerton school.

The girl, Amina Kocer-Bowman, was released April 3 from a Seattle hospital. The 9-year-old boy who brought the gun to school has written her an apology letter as part of the sentence he received when he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from the shooting.

The Kitsap County prosecutor has charged that boy's mother and her boyfriend with felony assault, saying they negligently allowed the boy access to the gun. They have pleaded not guilty.